Xmas number one in the UK.

Written By: - Date published: 10:01 pm, December 24th, 2009 - 9 comments
Categories: music, video, youtube - Tags:

One of the stranger Internet campaigns has being going on in Britain. It has resulted in this excellent track being the Xmas number 1 single this year (it is in my programming playlist for special bugs). Far better than the usual mulch, and enough to wash out the taste of John Keys version of Snoopys Xmas.

Rage Against The Machine – Killing In The Name Live on BBC Radio 5 Live Video Full and Uncensored.

Note that this track has been getting delays due to demand 😈

From wikipedia
2009 Christmas Number One campaign

In early December 2009, Jon and Tracy Morter launched a group on the social networking site Facebook encouraging people to buy the song in the week running up to Christmas in order to prevent the winner of the The X Factor TV show from achieving the coveted Christmas number one slot in the UK Singles Chart for the fifth year running and have “Killing in the Name” as Christmas Number One.[13][14] On December 15 the BBC reported the group has over 950,000 members.[15]

Alongside the group, a JustGiving page was created to raise money for UK homeless charity Shelter which, as of 20 December, was reported to have raised over £70,000 (approximately $110,000).[16]

After the creator of The X Factor, Simon Cowell, publicly denounced the campaign as “stupid” and “cynical”, the group has been mentioned on various UK news channels, radio stations and website blogs.[17]

The campaign has also been supported by Rage Against the Machine themselves. Guitarist Tom Morello said that achieving the Christmas number one would be a “wonderful dose of anarchy” and that he plans to donate some of the unexpected windfall to charity.[18][19] Musicians Dave Grohl, Liam Howlett, Sir Paul McCartney, Jedward[20] and the band Muse[21] also pledged their support for the campaign.[22][23][24] Comedians Stephen Fry, Ross Noble and Bill Bailey are also among the celebrity supporters of the campaign. [24][25] It was also noted that both The X Factor and Rage Against the Machine are signed to labels that are part of Sony BMG.[15][26]

On 17 December, it was reported that most bookmakers had suspended betting, with Ladbrokes announcing that “Killing in the Name” was favourite.[27][28] This was later retracted, with Ladbrokes reinstating X Factor winner Joe McElderry as favourite.[29]

After two days of sales, “Killing in the Name” was reported to be ahead by 10%, resulting in at least one major bookmaker re-opening its betting market for Christmas Number One.[15] Further midweek chart figures released on December 16 suggested “Killing in the Name” had widened the gap at the top of the charts to approximately 65,000 copies. Industry experts expected the physical CD release of McElderry’s “The Climb” on Wednesday would help provide it with a big sales boost.[30][31] On December 17, a representative of HMV said Rage Against the Machine were still ahead, but only by “a few thousand” copies.[32] On December 19, the final day that sales were eligible for inclusion in the chart, NME announced that The X Factor single was outselling Rage Against the Machine by 11,000 copies. The same article included a statement from McElderry, in which he described “Killing in the Name” as “dreadful”.[33]

The track successfully reached the number one spot as revealed on BBC Radio 1 on December 20, 2009, selling over 500,000 copies and being the first exclusively download-only single to hit number one in the process.[16] A BBC spokesperson said BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 6 Music would continue to play the clean edit of ‘Killing in the Name’ which cuts out the 17 swearwords at the end of the song. BBC Radio 2 will not play the Rage Against the Machine track but will play rival Joe McElderry’s “The Climb” that reached #2.[16] The band had created controversy when they performed an uncensored rendition of the song on BBC Radio 5Live despite the hosts asking them to censor the expletive end. During the crescendo of their performance, frontman Zack De La Rocha screamed the lyrics, “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me” repeatedly. Hosts Nicky Campbell and Shelagh Fogarty apologised afterwards.[34][18][35]

9 comments on “Xmas number one in the UK. ”

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  1. outofbed 1
    24 December 2009 at 10:11 pm

    As “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me’ is in the lyrics
    I wonder just what the beeb thought would happen when asking RAM to censor the lyrics
    Still a great campaign and good to hear the song again although it does sound different
    not being heard through mys son’s bedroom walls

    • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1.1
      24 December 2009 at 10:25 pm

      Stars, you are unfortunate, I pity you,
      Beautiful as you are, shining in your glory,
      Who guide seafaring men through stress and peril
      And have no recompense from gods or mortals,
      Love you do not, nor do you know what love is.
      Hours that are aeons urgently conducting
      Your figures in a dance through the vast heaven,
      What journey have you ended in this moment,
      Since lingering in the arms of my beloved
      I lost all memory of you and midnight.

  2. Herodotus 2
    24 December 2009 at 10:15 pm

    Nice to see a band with principles and some substance “give it to the man”. At least this single was played unlike the Dead Kennedys only chart success in NZ. I am sure that this will have placed a few smiles and a chuckle or 2 out there.

    • Noko 2.1
      25 December 2009 at 3:49 am

      It was also noted that both The X Factor and Rage Against the Machine are signed to labels that are part of Sony BMG.

  3. lprent 3
    24 December 2009 at 10:25 pm

    Oob: know what you mean. It was close to being rockys favourite song for a while while I was supervising her. After you get control over the volume knob, it is a good song. Also great for bug killing motivation

  4. Tigger 4
    24 December 2009 at 10:38 pm

    Gotta say, this gave me much joy. Joythat a well organised grass roots campaign can overwhelm a monied piece of candied, commerical spin. They had tried to dethrone the ‘inevitable’ X-Factor UK Xmas #1 single a couple of times, especially last year. Last year X-Factor looked unbeatable. This year it was proved that it can be beaten. There’s hope for us yet… The wheels will come off the ‘inevitable’ Key bus one day…it’s just a matter of timing…and time marches on.

  5. SHG 5
    25 December 2009 at 12:34 am

    Not a HUGE fan of Tom Morello’s playing, but he is an articulate motherf*cker.

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